►My channel: http://youtube.com/TheBestFilmArchives ►SUBSCRIBE: http://www.youtube.com/TheBestFilmArchives?sub_confirmation=1 ►Google+: http://plus.google.com/+TheBestFilmArchives ►Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheBestFilmArchives ►Twitter: http://twitter.com/BestFilmArch This film is a documentary on the liberation of the Philippines by the U.S. Army during the World War 2. It covers the landings through the final battle of Manila in 1945. The Battle of Manila, also known as the Liberation of Manila, fought from 3 February - 3 March 1945 by American, Filipino, and Japanese forces, was part of the 1945 Philippine campaign. The one-month battle, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of Manila, was the scene of the fiercest urban fighting in the Pacific theater, and ended almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines (1942–1945). The capture of Manila was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest. Battle of Manila | 1945 | Liberation of the Philippines by the US Army | WW2 Documentary Fim Background: The Commonwealth of the Philippines was invaded by the Empire of Japan in December 1941 shortly after Japan's declaration of war upon the United States of America (December 8, 1941), which controlled the Philippines at the time and possessed important military bases there. The Japanese invaded several locations in northern Luzon and advanced rapidly southward toward Manila, capital and largest city of the Philippines. The U.S. army, consisting of about 20,000 Americans and 80,000 Filipinos, retreated onto the Bataan Peninsula. On December 26, 1941, Manila was declared an open city and all American military forces abandoned the city leaving civilians behind. On January 2, 1942, Japanese forces entered and occupied Manila. After General MacArthur had been evacuated from the Philippines, all of its islands fell to the Japanese. The last American forces in the Philippines surrendered on May 6, 1942. It was the worst defeat of the United States in World War II. The Japanese occupation was harsh, accompanied by atrocities and with large numbers of Filipinos pressed into slave labor. The Japanese occupiers of Manila collected all enemy aliens in Manila and transported them to the University of Santo Tomas. Santo Tomas Internment Camp was the largest of several camps in the Philippines in which the Japanese interned enemy civilians, mostly Americans, in World War II. The campus of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila was utilized for the camp which housed more than 4,000 internees from January 1942 until February 1945. Liberation of Manila and the Santo Tomas Internment Camp: The U.S. rushed to liberate Santo Tomas Internment Camp due to a common belief that the Japanese would massacre all their prisoners, military and civilian. On January 9, 1945, on the south shore of Lingayen Gulf on the western coast of Luzon, General Krueger's Sixth Army landed his first units. Almost 175,000 men followed across the twenty-mile (32 km) beachhead within a few days. With heavy air support, Army units pushed inland. Two more major landings followed, one to cut off the Bataan Peninsula, and another, that included a parachute drop, south of Manila. Pincers closed on the city and, on February 3, 1945, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and the 8th Cavalry Regiment (organized as infantry) passed through the northern suburbs and into the city itself. As the advance on Manila continued from the north and the south, the Bataan Peninsula was rapidly secured. On February 16, paratroopers and amphibious units simultaneously assaulted the islet of Corregidor. It was necessary to take this stronghold because troops there can block the entrance of Manila Bay. The Americans needed to establish a major harbor base at Manila Bay to support the expected invasion of Japan, planned to begin on November 1, 1945. Resistance on Corregidor ended on February 27, and then all resistance by the Japanese Empire ceased on August 15, 1945, obviating the need for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. Despite initial optimism, fighting in Manila was harsh. It took until March 3 to clear the city of all Japanese troops, and the Japanese Marines, who fought on stubbornly and refused to either surrender or to evacuate as the Japanese Army had done. Fort Drum, a fortified island in Manila Bay near Corregidor, held out until 13 April, when a team of Army troops went ashore and pumped 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the fort, then set off incendiary charges. No Japanese soldiers in Fort Drum survived the blast and fire. In all, ten U.S. divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest American campaign of the Pacific war, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France.

• published: 18 Sep 2014
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